haven't tried turning the crank by hand that's a really good idea thanks - i have got a brand new battery in there though and even tried two different starter motors which both work so again i am leaning towards the flywheel. i will check it tomorrow and see if i can crank it with a spanner. will post more pics up tomorrow although no decent wheels on yet so it wont really look as good as it should do worth looking at the state of the wiring though - if i ever see the b*stard that did it i'm going to run him over with my shiny newly finished golf. Thanks for your words of encouragement and more importantly advice!! Cheers
So today has been productive; 1. new wiring loom in only took about twenty minutes...which means either i'm a wiring genius and just didn't know OR more likely i've got it wrong somewhere and there is still a bucketload to do. I haven't actually tested it fully yet so i'm looking forward to that (read; 'sh*tting myself about that'). 2. fitted the new ignition barrel and housing after braking the old one during removal - note to everyone MAKE SURE THE STEERING LOCK IS OFF before you attempt to remove the housing... Also fitted the old dash back on loosely just to remind myself what the inside of the car should really look like! but it has to come off again tomorrow anyway so i can sort out one or two little fiddly bits including the foam ring that runs roud the top of the heater bit to stop air escaping (anyone know where i can get some from?) And...as promised... some pictures of the outside in all her shiny black glory - please excuse the wheels they're not staying... So people let me know what you think? I am very pleased with progress so far everything has gone swimmingly - which as you know means that something is about to go seriously t*ts up - however until then i'm feeling quite smug...it's looking good.
Looking seriously nice! Well done for saving it from it's previous state! A lot of time goes into doing this, i can appreciate as i had a full respray on mine over the summer last year, but still haven't found time to get all the interior back in, what with various other problems since lol. Hope you're run of things going swimmingly continues for you.
where did you get yours painted? i used to have a red mk2 it was only a driver but i loved that car i'd like to own another one day - i should really get this finished first though! do you have any pictures of yours? i'd love to have a look - did you have anything done to it when it was painted or was it a resto?
the bodyshop have them i wasn't too fussed about getting them back - i can give you his contact details if you like? he probably still has them as i only just got the car back.
Nice project! Looking great. Reminds me to pull my finger out and make a start on mine... but have to get the new garage and extension built to put it in first! On the subject of wheels... if you're anywhere near Hampshire, then I'd be interested in buying your rough steels when you're finished with them to use during my project..?! Tim
Ha! and i thought i had my work cut out for me!!!! i'm roughing outside on the drive - no garage for me but it's all part of the fun isn't it... Is yours the black Golf in your sig you want to work on? it looks mint, what could you possibly need to do to it? Thanks for the kind words I can't wait to have it finished the body shop did a top job and now i just need to pull my finger out and get it back together - finances allowing! As for the wheels you can have them when i've finished you'll just need to collect them, where abouts are you living?
well you can't seem them very clearly but by god i think i might have actually made some progress!! the front seats and rear bench are in carpets cleaned it actually looks like a car again!! don't know if i'm preaching to the converted - but a wire brush on ageing carpets works wonders on making them look years newer as well as lifting out all of the crud that will have worked it's way down to the bottom of the pile over the years. after realising that the loom i had fitted was slightly incorrect i have to undo all the hard work i had put in to fitting the new loom and all this because of the rear fog light that was the only thing that i couldn't get to work - why would ze germans want to change the loom from one design to another? surely not just to hack me off... anyway i need a new one 89, 8v the one with the slightly larger headlight plug (red) if anyone has one PLEASE, PLEASE LET ME KNOW.
I had mine done by Chichester Bodyworks, main change was having the dirty great dent pulled out of the rear quarter that a transit man kindly did for me lol. Other bits and bobs done as well...i've got a thread going here... http://www.clubgti.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=120414 I'll update it some more sometime soon when i eventually find the time to finish it. Where abouts are you in hants?
I'm in Bordon which is just off the A3 about 20 mins away from Portsmouth we'll have to meet up some time and help each other out with our car woes... Your thread looks good - the car looks even better you need to get that thing back on the road ASAP I am starting to hit a few holds up (mostly financial mind) but I am determined to have this thing up and running properly as soon as I can. Good luck with yours also
Sooooo Been a while since I posted on here and to be honest not much has happened since the last time (read nothing). I don have some questions for all you electricians out there though; I'm thinking of getting some aftermarket gauges fitted and I wondered if anyone has done a job like it before? How much of wiring nightmare is it to fit a new speedo and rev counter? all advice greatly received as usual
Well it's been forever since I've posted any developments on this - mostly because there haven't been any. Due to the joy of being made redundant and lack of funds much of my planned work has come skidding to a halt. However...some progress is now underway! Firstly, I have my self a donor vehicle - lots of parts for sale by the way pm me for info and pics!! Today has been quite productive: The old 1.8 block is going to be replaced with the block from the donor car - get the cylinder head checked out as well while its off and see what kind of condition it is in. My chuck these wheels on but i'm not sure if I like them all that much...thoughts people? They are a bit big and not really to my taste so I may have answered my own question there...I think some g60 steelies might be the way forward. OEM look and all that. Anyone want to buy these ones? Help fund the project... Thought I would include an interior shot as well - mostly so you can admire the amount of dust that has built up all the while it has been stood waiting for me to return. The smelly old sound proofing is out (if I can't afford more power at the minute I'll just have to make it lighter instead) carpets due to go back in soon and the doors need re-waterproofing after several attempts already. The drivers door is the worst and I now have some really thick water proof membrane to go on so that should seal it all up nicely. VW still sell the bottom seal for the outside window the old ones fitted had massive gaps that let most of the water through. Fingers crossed this time it might work. Tomorrow should see the old block out complete with gearbox so I can grind all the rust out of the engine bay as you can see from the picture below. Also got some of that Deox gel after reading about it in another build thread on here. Paint the bay get the rebuilt engine in and go from there... Looking good so far though I'm quite pleased.
finally some more work It seems that there are massive gaps between working being carried out on this massive project. Due to redundancy a while ago I tried to sell her but to no avail - instead I've tried to persevere with the work keeping costs at an absolute minimum. some of the work completed since the last update: Old digi engine out old digi loom out The old loom and engine just seemed really messy so I've opted for conversion to K-Jet. It seems a relatively straight forward conversion especially as I have a whole donor car to nick bits off if I get stuck.
next up was to take a look at the severe looking rust patches dotted around the bay: Not too bad after some wire wheel abuse and lastly a pic of the boot which is actually now all painted up and refitted. Next up is to prep the bay and paint it myself. I found these brilliant spray cans called U-pol?! or something similar and the spray pattern is amazin'. Should be sufficient for the bay anyway it was never intended to be a show car but it still has to look as good as I can get it. Considering this is my first full on project I'm really pleased with how its turned out so far.
So... some good progress made over the past couple of weeks I managed to get rid of 99% of the rust in the engine bay. Only one troublesome bit were the bulkhead heatshield fits to two screw heads. I fibreglassed the bad bits were the rust had penetrated through the bulkhead completely - the hole was literally tiny so it seemed ok to do. The biggest headache was getting rid of all the spray wax that seems to be everywhere in the bay. That took a good day on its own. Some pictures of the progress, some show the high build primer I used and how it sits now in grey primer ready for the last few coats before the colour goes on. This is the high build primer to get rid of the last few tiny pitt marks you could still see especially around the battery tray. Proper rust trap that is. And the before picture. This picture shows the gazebo I bought for it a little while ago (how spoilt is this car) which also means that I can work on it in the rain as I don't have the benefit of a garage. And the last two show most of the bay in primer - this is coat number two or three I forget now but only a few more tiny sections to skim and sand and then it's finally time for colour. Then new engine goes in complete with the subframe (I have a whole donor car to remove it from) Rear beam to go on, KJet fuel lines and fuel pump, new number plates, wheels, tires, new brakes and shoes and she will be ready for her MOT. Probably less than a month and she should be back on the road... Does anyone know out of interest if VW still supply the gaitor that goes around the bottom of the sterring column? You can see the one I mean in the one before last image. The one I have has perished considerably and I want to replace it during/before the engine swap for ease of access. PS apologies for the crappy phone pics I keep forgetting to take the digi slr down their with me.
today's work 25/08/09 So pretty productive day today really. Also managed to enlist the help of my long suffering wife-to-be. Managed to get the old digi fuel pump/filter out. I had been avoiding doing this job for a long time as the nuts holding the pump on were looking pretty flaky. A good soaking in WD40 soon saw the nuts coming off with relative ease and thankfully the threads underneath were in pretty good condition. The only slightly tricky bit was getting those bloody awful hose clips off that VW put on at the factory. I hate them. Passionately... Got the pump disconnected unclipped the old digi fuel lines and fed them out through the increasingly empty engine bay. Pretty straight forward really. I've been told that the digi lines wont be sufficient for supplying fuel to the replacement k-jet engine. They look identical in size/colour but I might as well just change them over anyway as I have a whole donor car to take them from. I don't know if anyone needs any of this digi gear (fuel pump, lines, engine loom, fusebox, ecu etc, etc but i'm happy to part with it cheap - shameless plug...) Also seam sealed the engine bay including the bit where the chassis legs mate to the panels as these were mega rusty when I started cleaning bay up. Not going through that again... Next up was to clean the area behind the scuttle panel as it was quite skanky. The wax VW put in is a dirt magnet. I'll finish that off tomorrow ready for getting the ecu etc back in. As an added bonus I was having a look at the donor car today and having jacked up the front of the car happened across these little beauties. Don't suppose anyone knows what make they might be? I had a good butchers but couldn't see any branding on them. They look pretty expensive though and will make a nice addition to the black golf. Also found this nice rust patch on the donor... I'm still trying to locate one of these steering column gaiters. If anyone knows of where they might be found please let me know this is going to hold up the engine install otherwise. Check out the mess of the inside of the donor as well. This is my mobile office/workshop at the minute. Ghetto-fabulous. Lastly a handy guide for anyone I enlist to push one of the two golfs around frequently. I might get some stickers made up like this. And lastly a picture of the bay as it stands now. Doesn't look much different but there has been definite progress. The whole bay is in primer now, seam sealed, and had a good sand down to smooth out some niggling imperfections. Almost ready for getting some colour on. Just need to sort out a tiny patch of rust I found in the front wheel well that has penetrated through behind the suspension turret. Again a tiny patch so nothing to really worry about. Should be getting some colour on it by the end of this week I hope. The front cross member with the engine mount on will be replaced as that one is pretty rusty but does anyone know if it is ok to leave it off for a while? It is probably a silly question but I was worried that the chassis legs would spread apart without anything to hold them at a specific distance apart. Thanks for looking
subframe out So despite the rain today we managed to get the subframe out after the postie dutifully dropped off my strut removal tool bang on time. Nice work Royal Mail (other good postal services are available)... I had already soaked the subframe bolts in WD40 for some time before the removal and trial loosened them so I was confident the captive nuts wouldn't let me down. Got the car up on the axle stands with a jack under the subframe and gently lowered it down. Job done. Sanded back the little legs the subframe mates too and rustproofed and seam sealed just to make sure I don't have to come back to this again for some time. A pic of the subframe too so you can admire the rust. More pics to come tomorrow when hopefully I might actually start getting some colour in the bay... Thanks for looking
nice work hi ther, likin the goof pal, i am currently on verge of similar engine bay work, like the deseaming idea. just thought i would mention something i saw on sky tv, one o them "a car is reborn" things. CAVITY WAX - i reckon its a winner like, think i may be pretty liberal with it as i plan to keep mine for a long time and dont want all the hard work to go to waste. not found supplier yet but sure it can be applied via air compressor or possibly in cans or something. don't know if someone may have valuable input here, just a thought. just incase u don't follow my meaning, it's intended for chassis legs and sills etc. (i reckon). would be nice if **** had any tips on professional application
